AfriGeneas Canada Research Forum

Canadian Black History

Canadian Black History

Date: Fri, 1600-09-29

*A brief article on Black Canadian history before America’s Civil Rights movement is recognized on this date.
The first recorded black person to set foot on land now known as Canada was a free man named Mathieu de Costa, who travelled with explorer Samuel de Champlain, and arrived in Nova Scotia some time between 1603 and 1608 as a translator for the French explorer Pierre Dugua, Sieur de Monts. The first known black person to live in Canada was a slave from Madagascar named Olivier Le Jeune, who may have been of partial Malay ancestry. As a group, black people arrived in Canada in several waves.